Another delicious summer salad recipe for ya today! This one features plump, juicy, ripe peaches that are warmed and caramelized on the grill. They pair up with toasty walnuts, blue cheese, and peppery arugula and it’s all tied together with a honey & balsamic reduction. What’s not to like!? I’ve included a variation of this recipe that I think would be delicious to try!

Grilled Peach Salad (adapted from here)

• 2-3 ripe peaches, cut in half
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper
• butter (or olive oil/Earth Balance/etc. to veganize the recipe)
• 5 oz baby arugula
• 2 oz blue cheese, crumbled

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 4-6 minutes until they are aromatic. Set them aside to cool. Once cooled, give them a rough chop.

In a small saucepan, heat the honey, balsamic vinegar, thyme, black pepper and salt over medium heat. Stir to dissolve the honey and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is slightly thickened and syrupy, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the honey balsamic syrup cool a bit – it will continue to thicken as it cools.

Preheat a grill pan to high heat. Spread a thin layer of butter over the cut side of the peaches. Place the peaches on the grill, cut side down. Grill until peaches are softened and grill marks appear- 4 to 5 minutes.

Arrange the peaches cut side up over the baby arugula and top with blue cheese crumbles and toasted walnuts. Drizzle with dressing and enjoy!

**Variation: Try using apricots instead of peaches, goat cheese instead of blue cheese, basil instead of thyme, and pine nuts instead of walnuts.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I love quinoa. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks- I love it! I also love pumpkin and I decided to combine the two in a yummy fall-inspired dish. I caramelized some onions, candied some pecans, and cooked up some quinoa. Ooh! I also threw in some fresh sage from my garden. My garden is still giving me sweet strawberries, tomatoes, and I see some squash growing, along with all sorts of amazing herbs. I made a quick apple cider vinaigrette to go with it for extra flavaaaaaaa.

Pumpkin Quinoa

• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup organic pumpkin puree
• fresh sage, finely chopped
• candied pecans
• caramelized onions
• apple cider vinaigrette, to taste
• salt and pepper, to taste

Candied Pecans

• 1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup maple syrup

Heat a pan on medium heat and add the pecans, toast for about five minutes (until fragrant), tossing frequently. Add olive oil and salt, stir. Add maple syrup and stir continuously for about 30 seconds as it bubbles. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet and let cool.

Caramelized Onions

• 1/2 sweet onion, sliced
• olive oil, to coat pan
• drizzle of red wine vinegar

Coat the bottom of a pan with olive oil, and heat to medium high heat. Add the onions and turn down the heat to low. Stir the onions every few minutes, as they begin to brown and eventually caramelize. This is a slow process….be patient!! At the end, add a tiny splash of red wine vinegar to deglaze the pan as you stir.

Apple Cider Vinaigrette

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp pure maple syrup
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• salt and pepper

Whisk all the ingredients together.

I love eating salad….what could be better than a big pile of vegetables in a delicious dressing. A few weeks ago I made a roasted beet salad and it was absolutely divine. The roasted beets are matched up with aspargus and blue cheese and amazing candied walnuts, all tied together in a super citrus-y orange vinaigrette. This is one of the best salads I’ve had in a long time…I definitely went back for seconds! This would be great to make for company, instead of a boring ceasar salad or green salad with the all-too-typical (yet tasty, don’t get me wrong!) balsamic vinaigrette.

Roasted Beet Salad (adapted from KCTS Cooks Salads)

• 4 medium beets, tops trimmed
• 1tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 8 cups mixed baby greens (these can be left out in order to just make a side dish with aspargus/beets/walnuts/etc)
• 1 apple (I used Graventstein from my apple tree)
• 1/2 cups walnuts
• 3 tbsp sugar ( I used organic unrefined cane sugar)
• 6-8 asparagus spears
• 1/4 cup blue cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss beets with olive oil, salt, pepper. Place in shallow baking dish and bake for 40-60 minutes (until tender). Cool beets slightly and then remove skins and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

Wash and drain greens and cut apple into small chunks. Place sugar in a frying pan and heat until melted. Add walnuts and stir to coat. Turn nuts onto a lightly oiled dish to cool, then coarsely chop.

Wash and trim asparagus, then cut into pieces and blanch 1-2 minutes and then plunge into cold water. Drain.

Combine all elements together, drizzle with orange vinaigrette and sprinkle with blue cheese.

Orange Vinaigrette

• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/2 tsp orange zest
• 1 shallot, peeled and minced
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients and whisk in oil.

On another note…I start my full-time cooking school experience on Monday!!!!! (Before I was only taking one class). Now I really get to step into the kitchen and learn and I couldn’t be more excited….and slightly nervous! You may have noticed a new tab at the top of my blog, entitled ‘culinary’. By clicking this tab, you will be located to posts purely about my cooking school experience. I will continue to blog about food + recipes (of course!!!) but I hope you also will enjoy reading about the mayhem I will create for myself in cooking school bahahah. They don’t know what they’ve gotten themselves into!!

Yes…that is me as a young’n with who knows what on my face (let’s just hope it’s face paint). For some reason I always closed one eye in pictures when I was a kid….

I’m not going to lie…..I don’t feel like using an oven the past few days. I sit here sweating, but ready to blog. The temperatures in the Vancouver area have been OFF THE CHARTS lately. We are setting records left and right, and let’s just say that none of us here are used to 35-40 degree weather. At least I’ve been getting a ton of use out of my pool! That’s why I only wanted a dinner that would take a couple minutes to make in my boiling house. A simple vinaigrette to top a cool vegetable and crab salad sounded light, cold, and delicious.

I got the idea from Bella and used the recipe for the vinaigrette and adapted the recipe for the salad.

Champagne Vinaigrette from Emeril

• 1/4 cup champagne vinegar (**If you don’t have champagne vinegar, just use white wine vinegar!)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons minced shallots
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper

In a blender, combine the champagne vinegar, honey, shallots, mustard and garlic. Puree until smooth, 10 to 15 seconds. While continuing to blend, slowly drizzle the olive oil into the blender through the opening in the lid until the dressing is smooth and emulsified. Season with salt and pepper to taste and transfer to a clean, non-reactive container with a lid. Set aside until ready to use, or store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Crab & Vegetable Salad

Honestly, I didn’t measure anything exactly- I picked a bowl big enough to hold the amount I wanted to make and eye’d the amounts of the ingredients I would need.

• Cucumber
• Cherry tomatoes
• Avocado
• Crab (I used a can of frozen crab, which I left in the fridge to thaw for a few hours. You could definitely use fresh crab!)
• Sunflower seeds (I used unsalted)

Enjoy!